Mending our broken pieces with gold
Hello friends,
I woke up this morning to clear skies and a cool breeze. I walked out to the patio and turned my face to the sun, watching the palm trees and live oaks sway in the wind. I took a literal breath of fresh air, thankful for the crisp and clean feeling it gave me as it glided into my nostrils, down my throat, and into my lungs. I needed this weather.
Florida has been unbearably hot and humid, even by Florida standards. I've been spending most of my time on my porch to escape the confines of my house. I love my house, but I've been stuck inside for almost a year because of my lowered immune system. Being outside helps, but the muggy, swampy air has had me feeling sluggish. The weather today, though, broke up the monotony, even if only a little bit. The sun on my skin is refreshing rather than suffocating.
2020 has been a nightmare, and the drama won't stop when the calendar flips to 2021. But for right now, at this moment, I feel content. I'm not at peace, exactly, but I have to keep hoping that soon the world will stop cracking into a million unrepairable pieces.
The Japanese have a practice called kintsugi, or "golden joinery." Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery by joining the cracks with gold lacquer. I've never repaired an actual piece of pottery, but right now, I'm trying to mend my broken pieces with whatever gold I can find. My gold lacquer is poetry and photography and long hugs from my dad (one of the few people I've had physical contact with since March). The world is broken, and I am broken, and so many of you are broken. But we have the ability to mend ourselves and be even shinier than before. What is your gold lacquer right now?
Shabbat shalom,
Yardena